Insulated electrical terminals of the type described generally above, and in detail herein, include a tubular end portion, commonly referred to as a ferrule, which may be placed over the stripped end of an insulated electrical wire containing a solid or stranded conductor core therein. The ferrule may be crimped mechanically and electrically to the stripped core end of the wire. The other end of the terminal typically includes a terminal tongue. The tongue may be formed as a receptacle having a generally planar portion and curled flanges extending from the edges of the planar portion. The tongue receives a flat blade-type terminal of a complementary mating connecting device. Such insulated terminals originally attained wide use in the appliance and automotive industries which often had generally standard blade or tab terminals. However, the terminals now have been used in a wide variety of other applications.
Originally, insulated terminals of the character described above were used primarily in a straight line configuration between the electrical wire and the electrical device to which it is terminated. The ferrule was at one end of an elongated member and the terminal end at the other. However, various industries have found a need to make connections to termination portions on an electrical device, with the wire being introduced at some angle to the electrical device, typically at a 90.degree. angle. Although the electrical wire, itself, can be bent in order to make such connections, the total length consisting of the tongue configuration plus the length of the ferrule, plus the length of the bend of wire can in may applications be too long. Consequently, such insulated terminals have been designed in an angled configuration with the ferrule width, not length, being added to the tongue configuration, i.e. the exposed conductor is inserted into the ferrule at approximately a 90 , rather than a 180 offset from the mating blade-type terminal. This reduces the overall length of the connector by the bend of wire and the difference between the length and width of the crimp ferrule. Such insulated terminals commonly are called "flag" terminals.
One of the problems with such insulated terminals, particularly flag-type terminals, involves the provision of strain relief on the insulated electrical wire itself. In other words, although the conductor core of the wire is crimped to the terminal inside the insulating housing, in certain environments the conductor core may flex and possibly break if the movement is not restrained. This condition may be particularly prevalent in high vibration environments such as automotive applications. Other applications where these problems are encountered may include aircraft, railroad, appliance and environments involving electric motors.
In high vibration environments such as those described above, crimping means have been provided to crimp or clamp onto the outer insulation of the insulated electrical wire to relieve the strain on the conductor core of the electrical wire. In a right angle or "flag" terminal, heretofore it has been common to leave one side of the insulating housing open for insertion of the terminated wire after the crimping operation. However, in high vibration environments, an open side of the insulated terminal is undesirable due to the possibility of shock or shorts or other dangers caused by uninsulated terminals with an exposed voltage potential.
Another type of crimping operation involves the use of a crimped ferrule for the conductor core of the insulated wire, with the ferrule preassembled into the insulated housing before crimping. If strain relief on the insulated wire, itself, is desired, a second crimp ferrule for the wire insulation has been added, but without full insulation protection of the housing. The second insulation crimping ferrule also may contribute to a larger overall connector, and space often is at a premium to the user of insulated terminals of the flag configuration.
This invention is directed to solving the myriad of problems discussed above by providing a low profile angled or flag terminal which is fully insulated and which includes an insulation gripping strain relief means to prevent breakage of the conductor core of an insulated electrical wire in a high vibration environment.